This invention relates to yard-leaf containers and more particularly to a yard-leaf caddy that is mobile, hand-portable and foldable for hauling leaves and debris from around residential yards to disposal containers and then foldable for storage in residential facilities.
There are numerous known carts, boxes, pans, trays and other containers for hauling leaves and debris from around residential and small-business yards to disposal containers. None are known, however, to be mobile on wheels, light for hand-portability and foldable for storage in a manner taught by this invention.
Examples of most-closely related known but different devices are described in the following patent documents:
Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a yard-leaf caddy which:
is light and foldable for hand portability and compact storage in residential facilities,
is mobile on wheels for hauling leaves and other debris in residential yards to containers for pickup by garbage collectors;
is conveniently loadable with a yard rake; and
is conveniently unloadable in either a garbage bag or a garbage can.
This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a yard-leaf caddy having a container floor that is rectangular with an aft edge, a front edge, a first-side edge and a second-side edge. Hinged to the aft edge is an aft wall that pivots down forwardly to a storage mode which is parallel to the container floor and up rearwardly to a containment mode which is orthogonal to the container floor. Hinged to the front edge is a ramp wall that pivots down forwardly to a ramp mode which is variably parallel to the container floor, that pivots up rearwardly to the containment mode which is orthogonal to the container floor, and that pivots down rearwardly to the storage mode which is parallel to the container floor. Hinged to the first-side edge is a first side wall that pivots down second-sidewardly to the storage mode which is parallel to the container floor, and that pivots up first-sidewardly to the containment mode which is orthogonal to the container floor. Hinged to the second-side edge is a second side wall that pivots down first-sidewardly to the storage mode which is parallel to the container floor, and that pivots up second-sidewardly to the containment mode which is orthogonal to the container floor. Wheels are positioned to rotate proximate opposite sides of the aft edge. Included in the container floor is a floor valve for bottom emptying. Handle apertures are included in the ramp wall, the first side wall, the second side wall and the aft wall. All of the walls are lightweight panels for hand-portable light weight of the yard-leaf caddy in either the storage mode or the containment mode. The yard-leaf caddy has a width that allows the container floor to straddle a top of a predetermined garbage can and that allows the ramp wall to enter a predetermined garbage bag for being emptied. The walls have heights that allow them to be folded downwardly towards each other without overlapping. Typically, exclusive of wheel dimensions, the yard-leaf caddy has an overall width of about thirty inches, an overall length of about thirty-six inches and a height of about twelve inches. The wheels are preferably lightweight with diameters of approximately seven inches.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.